The King Wants to Get With SpongeBob

Well, I just don’t know what to think about this new Burger King ad for its Kids Meal, which now contains a SpongeBob SquarePants toy. Is it weirdly amusing, with its SpongeBob-costumed dancers (dig those tube socks!) fitted out with square-butt pads, and the King breakdancing? Or is it super creepy to feature hoochie dancers and the charming statement “Booty is booty” in an ad for a kids’ food product? You be the judge.

Parenting blog Strollerderby reports that the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has “taken offense” to the spot, and quotes CCFC director, Susan Linn, as saying: “It’s bad enough when companies use a beloved media character like SpongeBob to promote junk food to children, but it’s utterly reprehensible when that character simultaneously promotes objectified, sexualized images of women.’”

To be fair, I’ve only seen the spot running after 9 p.m. or so. This would indicate the crowd being marketed to is not children, but instead their parents, potential buyers of 99-cent kids’ meals who are presumably not shaken up by square-ass-shaking dancers.